So Much Tenderness...I read in Shadow & Act that Fassbinder stalwart, Günter Kaufmann, died a few days ago. Weird that there was so little coverage of the story. The son of an African-American serviceman and a German mother, he acted in over 27 films primarily in Germany begininng in the 70s as a member of the Fassbinder "stable".
Below is a clip from The American Soldier (1970) now one of my favorite RWF films but when I first saw it I slept through most of it's short, confusing 80 minute running time. But I did awaken for a finale that was so strange (and beautiful) I was convinced I was still asleep and dreaming! The odd and, I think, lovely song that accompanies the scene lingers. It's sung by Kaufmann.
Alert: If you haven't seen the movie this scene is a spoiler..sort of!
The American Soldier (1970) d. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
For your reading pleasure, my review of the NYAFF at Film Comment's online magazine!
Along with daffodils, sunshine, and graduations, a sure sign of spring is the arrival of the New York African Film Festival, founded and programmed by executive director Mahen Bonetti. The 19th edition arrived at the Film Society of Lincoln Center with the hallmarks of the season: color, freshness, warmth, and variety, with hopes for renewal and contemplation of what’s past...Read more
Just in time for the Academy Awards, I will be showing:
Hattie McDaniel: A Credit to The Motion Picture Industry 2004 6m
"I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry," McDaniel said as she accepted the 1st Academy Award given to an African-American for the film Gone with the Wind. A continuity error in a clip of the 1939 Oscars suggests that the "documentary" footage and her speech were re-staged.
The excellant Adepero Oduye plays Alike. The Iron Lady herself gave her a shout out at the Golden Globes!
On the eve of the Oscar nomination announcements I thought I'd re-post my Film Comment review for this beautifully made film. It's still playing around town so be sure to go out and see it!
“It’s exactly like Star Wars…The story is too fantastic and wonderful to cram into 2 hours.” If we get a good first weekend…there is a prequel and a sequel and they’re better than this movie by a long shot…I took the soft center."
Well, it is what it is! I find this clip of George Lucas discussing RED TAILS on the Daily Show both illuminating and amusing!
Illuminating because he addresses some of my very mixed feelings about the movie. My father, Lee (Buddy) Archer, was a Tuskegee Airman and he and his good friend Dr. Roscoe Brown ("The Gruesome Twosome"), consulted on the film and appeared in the accompanying documentary, Double Victory. Dad passed away in January 2010 and did not get to see any of the completed film.
I attended a preview screening a couple of months ago and the premiere last week. The film, much improved from the first time I saw it, should be supported. As a daughter, at first I found Red Tails disappointing, having had the good fortune to hear first-hand stories from the Airmen all of my life (I'll never forget the image of the small sea of red jackets at my mother's funeral in 1996). As a filmmaker tho', I'm intrigued by the way Red Tails is being hyped, the vague authorship of the movie and how it fits into Black cinema, historically. The amusing part is that I thought that Lucas called the film the 1st black-cast film (!) but, in fact, he claims "It's one the first all-black action pictures ever made."(see below)
Also funny--or at least a little hyperbolic--is his fear that the film, if it fails, will endanger if not destroy the opportunities for black filmmakers from this weekend on--prompting from Greg Tate and others the moniker “George Lucas, Black Filmmaker”! But I think Lucas is actually referring to the dangers of big —or should I say GI-normous budget films with predominantly black cast with a black director at the helm. This confused authorship between Lucas and the film’s director, Anthony Hemingway, is intriguing and in the clip Lucas self-effacingly disparages the film (the "soft" center) but inadvertently or unconsciously depending on how you feel about Lucas’ motives, displaces director Hemingway who he does not otherwise refer to in the interview.
The soapy and boyish "soft center" he describes is a truncated and specifically located episode, with hugely compressed characters. The focus then is mainly on dogfights and air(and digital) technology with an almost complete lack of context for the characters--particularly the absense of black women or almost any women--who are not even referenced (no gals back home? No sisters, no Mamas?), nor of African Americans at home following the airmen's adventures.
Well, I guess all of this was relegated to the prequels and sequels that hopefully will be produced (and maybe with my help!)but now hang in the balance of the OPENING WEEKEND BOX OFFICE!!
Anyway, all of this reminds me that all-black/colored movies directed by blacks and whites have existed since the movies began. There’s more than one per decade (I'll make a list later)! For example, preserved in part by our own Women’s Film Preservation Fund, A Fool and His Money (1912) is thought to be the first American film featuring an all African-American cast. And it was made by a LADY!—Alice Guy Blaché who owned Solax Studios, in Fort Lee, New Jersey and produced and directed dozens of films in the silent era.
The first all black action picture? What about The Norman Studios The Flying Ace set in WW1 and made in 1926! This film featured air battles, special effects (the camera turns completely upside down), comedy, action, daring aerial rescues AND romance!!
Here is a great clip from this rarely screened jewel!
Whether they run for two hours or for "6 SMASHING Reels!" black-cast films with their delights, issues, failings and travails are uniquely American and for me, essential in our understanding of the history of cinema.
SO,go see Red Tails this weekend!! You'll have fun!
More about the film a little later but if you are planning to see RED TAILS (2012) d. Anthony Hemingway, consider supporting it this opening weekend. The film cannot begin to represent the incredible history and amazing stories of the Airmen (which I have had the fortune to hear all of my life) but IT IS exciting, action-packed, appropriate for young people and well-acted with an attractive cast! It's clearly a labor of love and deserves an (enthusiastic and critical) audience.
Red Tails Trailer
Above: "Ina The Macon Belle" restored P-51 by Kermit Weeks and Dad and the original, early 1940s
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 has opened at The IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinema!
I was so moved by this film when I saw it at New Director's this year. I talked about it all the time and had planned an epic post for this blog. But then I was given the happy opportunity to write a review for Film Comment Magazine!
Third Streaming is showing selected stills from the film. At the opening reception Wed. night I was thrilled to meet Göran Hugo Olsson, the director.
I gushed and gushed.
He was VERY gracious, poor thing!
Please read my review in the Sept/Oct 2011 issue of the magazine or online and tell me what you think. Better yet, go see the film and let's really talk!
